Fast and Furious Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant Alleges in Court Papers

A Mexican drug trafficker awaiting trial in a Chicago federal court claims that the notorious Sinaloa cartel received weapons from "Operation Fast and Furious" under an alleged immunity agreement that the U.S. government made with cartel leaders, in exchange for information on rival gangs.

The defendant in a trafficking case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla, also claims the immunity deal allowed the criminal cartel to "continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs" into the United States.

He wants the U.S. government to provide documents relating to the botched gun running sting operation along the southwest border, arguing that it would benefit his defense.

Operation Fast and Furious, which began in September 2009, saw the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives supervise the sale of guns to straw purchasers with the intent of tracing the guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations and prosecuting their members. The ATF allowed about 2,000 guns to be sold in this manner.

The operation came under congressional scrutiny after it was linked to the December 2010 murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican bandits.

An investigative report, spearheaded by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), found that most of the weapons provided to Mexican criminals under the operation were going to the Sinaloa cartel, arguably one of the world's largest drug trafficking organizations.

In a court pleading filed last July, Zambada-Niebla made the claims about an immunity deal.

"Mr. Zambada-Niebla believes that the documentation that he requests will confirm that the weapons received by Sinaloa Cartel members and its leaders in Operation 'Fast & Furious' were provided under the agreement entered into between the United States government and [a Mexican lawyer] on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel that is the subject of his defense...," it said.

"Mr. Zambada-Niebla believes that the documentation will also provide evidence showing that the United States government has a policy and pattern of providing benefits, including immunity, to cartel leaders, including the Sinaloa Cartel and their members, who are willing to provide information against rival drug cartels."

The defendant argued that he is protected from federal prosecution for trafficking drugs into the U.S. between 2004 and 2009 under an alleged immunity deal struck between the U.S. government and Sinaloa leaders.

According to court documents, Zambada-Niebla claims that the immunity deal provided the cartel's leadership with "carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States" in exchange for information on rival drug cartels.

U.S. prosecutors deny the existence of such an immunity deal between the U.S. government and the cartel.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government last September filed a motion to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, which is aimed at assuring that national security information stemming from criminal cases  such as details associated with CIA operations  are not leaked to the public during court proceedings.

In a court pleading filed in September, U.S. prosecutors claimed that Zambada-Niebla's allegations about Fast and Furious have no merit.

"Defendant requests all information in the possession of the U.S. government related to an ATF investigation referred to as 'Fast and Furious'..." it said. "Defendants request related to Fast and Furious... and other unrelated matters are gratuitous and wholly unrelated to any legitimate discovery issues in this case."

Zambada-Niebla, who was arrested in Mexico in March 2009 and extradited to the U.S. eleven months later, is accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and heroin into the U.S.

He claims he was working on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, court documents show.

The defendant's pleading highlighted a July 2011 letter sent by Issa and Grassley to Attorney General Eric Holder, "suggesting that multiple United States agencies were employing as informants members of Mexican drug organizations."

"The evidence seems to indicate that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons, but that tax payers' dollars in the form of informant payments, may have financed those engaging in such activities," the pleading added.

There goes the "we were letting guns randomly "walk" into Mexico to see where they went" lie. It was a quid pro quo with the Sinaloa international terrorist drug cartel.

0bama, Holder and the whole lot of them are sponsors of terrorism, murder, drug trafficking, human slavery, money laundering and arms trafficking with intent to undermine a sovereign friendly nation. They have shamed the United States beyond all imagining.

10
posted on 12/30/2011 1:34:13 AM PST
by TigersEye
(Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)

U.S. prosecutors deny the existence of such an immunity deal between the U.S. government and the cartel.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government last September filed a motion to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, which is aimed at assuring that national security information stemming from criminal cases  such as details associated with CIA operations  are not leaked to the public during court proceedings.

That is just freaking hilarious.

"We didn't make no steenking deal! But we do have to hide what we deedn't do."

11
posted on 12/30/2011 1:45:23 AM PST
by TigersEye
(Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)

Wonder how much money was contributed to campaign coffers:
Mexican cartels === Chicago mob === political contributions === US government. Pay to play at it’s best.
No wonder they aren’t serious about closing the border.

*** So the Chicago Mob was trading guns to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel in trade for information the Chicago Mob could use ..... ***

Kindly refrain from impugning the integrity of 'The Chicago Mob'.

The guns and drugs involved went to Mexican Street Gangs 'prolly', the Latin Kings and others like them across the city. 'The Mob' or as they're also known, 'The Outfit', would never deal with scum like those involved in F&F.

It's bad enough when they have to deal with the scummy Chicago Politicians. But fortunately they (The Mob) can go to confession and do penance for that.

Thank you.

Honest Frankie he meant no offense. Please don't whack him and stick him in a car trunk out at O'Hare Airport.

Our government has been involved in this crap for 50 years, remember it was not long after the CIA was Caught red handed smuggling cocaine and made public through the Kerry Commission, that the Attorney General under Reagan, William French Smith, went before Congress, begged for and received “Special Permission” to continue their DRUG SMUGGLING OPERATION. See Michael Reagan if you don’t believe, cuz it is absolutely established FACT. So why would anybody be surprised.

First, drug kingpins lie about everything and should not be trusted, even if their story sounds plausible.

Second, Sinaloa is competing with Los Zetas. If this was an effort to disrupt Los Zetas, it could fly back into our faces. You see, Los Zetas are linked to Hezballah and have been helping the islamists establish camps in Mexico.

If Obama/Holder come out in the weeks before the 2012 election with arrests of islamists in Mexico due to intelligence gathered by the Sinaloa cartel, they could look like heroes (despite 300+ dead in the US and Mexico)

We have been setup before on stories (the Michelle tapes), so let’s keep our powder dry.

The defendant argued that he is protected from federal prosecution for trafficking drugs into the U.S. between 2004 and 2009 under an alleged immunity deal struck between the U.S. government and Sinaloa leaders....There Ya go. Obama got in on the tail end.

33
posted on 12/30/2011 5:55:16 AM PST
by Safetgiver
(I'd rather die under a free American sky than live under a Socialist regime.)

Obama could appear on LIVE TV and say ah akbar and eat something dead with blood dripping all over his face and his eyes girate about all evil and he would still be the president and the media would still cover for him;not a soul would say impeachment,obstruction or corruption and if anyone dared to say anything bad about him they are just racists move along nothing to see here.

Are you sure Greta was not just playing devil-advocate? She could have been setting Rush up to make the point, but still staying within the FOX guideline of not attacking the gov without proof in hand. Tend to think the smile was a check of accomplishment. I’ve seen her set up others, it seems to be her MO. She’s good at it....very smooth.

His lawyers need to bail him out and hire some former CAG guys to protect him. If, even an inkling of what he is talking about is true, this proves that this administration is nothing but a gang of criminals. Ones that would make a James Bond villain look okay.

No, you don’t have to wonder really. There is so much about this, drips and drabs, from money laundering to gunrunning and back again, BTW, this is not the first cartel member to make these charges. The other one’s case is under seal now.
This whole thing is very ugly, and it is not limited to Mexico. Look what is happening to Honduras.

Most of the Sinaloa Cartels communications with the DEA were through a cartel lawyer, Humberto Loya-Castro, according to Zambada-Niebla. He says Loya-Castro fed information to agents about rival cartels starting before 2004. Criminal charges against Loya-Castro in San Diego were dropped in 2008 because of his cooperation, Zambada-Niebla says.

In March 2009, Loya-Castro arranged for Zambada-Niebla to meet DEA agents at a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City, according to the court filing.

Zambada-Niebla says he gave the U.S. drug agents information about rival cartels and, in return, was assured that a pending indictment against him in Washington, D.C., would be dismissed and that he would be immune from further prosecution.

(snip)

The indictment against Zambada-Niebla charges him and about three dozen other defendants with conspiring to import tons of cocaine and multi-kilo quantities of heroin to Chicago and elsewhere between 2005 and 2008. He is being held under high security in a federal lockup in downtown Chicago.

Zambada-Niebla claims that his cartels criminal activities were sanctioned by the regional assistant for the DEA in South America  as well as by the general director of the DEA for Mexico and DEA agents in several Mexican cities including Monterrey, Hermosillo and Mexico City. He says in the court filing that agents from the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were involved, too.

He also says that DEA officials tipped Loya-Castro about U.S. and Mexican investigations, allowing top Sinaloa Cartel leaders such as Joaquin Chapo Guzman-Loera and Zambada-Niebla s own father, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, to avoid capture.

Those men, also charged in the Chicago case, remain fugitives. Guzman-Loera is considered one of the worlds top drug kingpins.

The United States government and its various agencies have a long history of providing benefits, permission and immunity to criminals and their organizations to commit crimes, including murder, in return for receiving information against other criminals, Zambada-Niebla s court filing says. Perhaps no better example is the celebrated case of Whitey Bulger, the Boston crime boss and murderer, who, along with other members of criminal organizations, were given carte blanche by the FBI to commit murders in order to receive information about the Italian mafia and other criminal organizations in the New England area.

Bulger, 81, was arrested June 22 in California after 16 years on the lam. His FBI handler, former Boston FBI agent John Connolly Jr., was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice in 2002 for warning Bulger in 1994 that he was going to be indicted. Bulger is accused of killing 19 people.

As with Bulger, the U.S. government turned a blind eye to the crimes the Sinaloa Cartel committed, Zambada-Niebla says in his court filing.

Zambada-Niebla is seeking documents to show whether Sinaloa Cartel leaders received weapons as part of their alleged cooperation with U.S. agents.

U.S. federal agents allegedly cut a deal with the Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed it to traffic tons of narcotics across the border, in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to documents filed in federal court

The allegations are made by Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a top ranking cartel boss extradited to the U.S. last year on drug charges. He is a close associate of Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and the son of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia

The deal allegedly began with Humberto Loya-Castro, a Sinaloa cartel lawyer who became an informant for the D.E.A. after a drug case against him was dismissed in 2008.

According to the motion, the deal was part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy, where the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel, through Operation Fast and Furious, in exchange for information that allowed the D.E.A. and FBI to destroy and dismantle rival Mexican cartels. Operation Fast and Furious is the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives anti-gun trafficking program which allowed thousand of guns to cross into Mexico.­Fox News

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